Very Strange Friendship
by citigirl13
Summary: No one understands Damon and Alaric's friendship. Sometimes even Alaric doesn't. But other times he realises that their friendship sometimes makes more sense than anything else.


**This isn't a great story. I'll be the first to admit that. But I'm feeling a little lost and wistful. One of my friends has told me something that is going to affect next year, and I'm not quite ready for that to happen yet. It's hard to let go of someone. It might not happen, but it might. And if it does, then... It's going to be hard. **

**So I'm dedicating this story to him, even though he'll never read it – he always makes fun of me for loving TVD, and I doubt he'd be caught dead reading it. But he's my best friend, and this fic is about friendship. **

**So to be my best friend – my first and real best friend that I've ever had. I love you. I'm not letting go – you're not getting rid of me that easily. **

**DISCLAIMER:**** I do not own **_**The Vampire Diaries **_**or any of the characters**

**Very Strange Friendship**

"_I'm just trying to understand why you haven't staked Damon yet," Meredith says, glancing down at her hand entwined in Ric's. _

Not many people understand Damon and Ric's friendship. Sometimes Ric is among them. Why _is _he friends with Damon? Damon's a vampire and he's a vampire hunter; Damon turned his wife into a vampire (not to mention had sex with her, but that's just the icing on the cake). If anything the two of them should be mortal enemies. Like Winston Churchill and Adolf Hitler. Like Harrison Ford and Gary Oldman. Like Ash and Gary.

But somehow they've turned into friends. _Friends_. How the hell did that happen?

Alaric wanted to kill him at first. He _tried _to kill him at first. But instead Damon killed him. Though he was annoyed at first (annoyed is an understatement) he kinda, sorta gets it now. He can't judge Damon for killing him when Alaric was going to kill him. He'd be a hypocrite if he did that. Still, it does seem a little odd that the two of them are now drinking buddies.

Didn't start out that way. Still hasn't. But there's an unspoken agreement between the two of them to meet up at the bar. They've never arranged a time to meet, but around eight o'clock on Friday and Saturday and seven every other night, they are both at the bar. It doesn't always turn out that way. When things are happening – vampires attacking humans and cars being turned over on the road – sometimes one of them is sitting there like a forgotten prom date wondering where the other is. When that happens Ric feels a shiver run down his body like a trickle of water falling straight down his spine – something's happening, someone is hurt. Maybe Damon is even doing the hurting.

That's another thing: Damon hurts people. Alaric sometimes even hates him for things that he does. Like when Damon turned Bonnie's mother into a vampire. Where does he get off, doing that? He doesn't even discuss it with her first, doesn't even give her the cursory goodbye to her mother as a human; he just feeds her blood and snaps her neck. Damon is like that though: a tornado that sweeps through town leaving a path of destruction behind. It might be a burning house; it might be bodies drained of blood; it might be Bonnie sobbing over her mother or Elena holding Jeremy's head begging him to wake up. Or even snapping Alaric's neck when he was trying to stop him from killing Caroline's dad. Elena calls him "self-destructive" but Alaric thinks he's just a plain idiot sometimes. Alright, most of the time.

That's why whenever Alaric sees Damon and Elena slowly edging closer together he gets defensive. He doesn't – and won't – label his relationship with Elena and Jeremy, but he's like a father-figure (sort of, but he doesn't like to think about it because it makes his palms sweat and think about all those talks his mother gave him about having children etc etc). That means he has to protect her. It's hard enough when she hangs out with vampires and originals and witches. But Damon? From his leather jacket to mischievous smile-and-wink he screams _Danger: Get Out While You Can_. Elena shouldn't be with Stefan either – but Alaric finds himself a little more worried about Damon, despite Elena continuing denials that she feels nothing for him. No one, not even him – especially not him – believes her. It one of the constant sore spots between Damon and Ric. Whenever Ric mentions Damon backing away from Elena he get's defensive – and when Alaric says defensive, he means that manic look in his eye that Damon has before he does something stupid.

Trying to split Damon and Elena up is like trying to pull two magnets apart. Eventually they'll always attach to each other again, even when they're both at each other's throats. Alaric tries to keep his mind off that, running the phrase _whatever will be will be _through his head.

Despite all this reasons, Alaric is friends with Damon. Why?

He remembers when Stefan was kidnapped by the tomb vampires and Damon persuaded Alaric to help him. No actually, it was Elena. Alaric wasn't doing it for Damon; in fact he was doing it for some half-hearted attempt at seeing his wife again. Anyway, he remembers shooting a vampire in the back when he/she/it was going to attack Damon from behind. Damon and Alaric's eyes met, and Damon thinks he saw a flicker of something – confusion, yes, but something _more_. Gratitude, perhaps. He hides it, hurrying away. Alaric knows he was trying to stop Frederick from getting Stefan, but he thinks (like a jilted girlfriend, as stupid as that it) that it was to stop him from saying something he wanted to say to Alaric – perhaps _thank you?_

You see, Alaric and Damon are almost kindred spirits. He thinks that they're both a little lost, driving down a road that has no end in sight. Alaric may be a little further down that road than Damon, but he understands it. Yes Damon's uncontrollable, blunt, arrogant –

Yet when Alaric wakes up after nearly killing Meredith and attempting to kill Elena, its Damon who's sitting in his bedroom waiting for him to wake up. It's him who doesn't judge Alaric and isn't afraid to be around him. Alaric can't help but...appreciate that.

"_It's a strange friendship," Alaric answers. At Meredith's look he adds, "A _very _strange friendship." _


End file.
